The news isn’t in yet, but the information is still dripping out to selected media sources.
Most of it is about the people Eddie Howe wants with him at Parkhead.
In my view, it’s good news that he appears to be getting a free hand in who is hired.
The guys he’s looking at are known to him and known to have the right quality.
It will be interesting to hear where Richard Hughes fits into the picture; if he’s got the necessary experience – which he does – I think it would be good to have him as Director of Football.
Theirs will be a partnership which will seek to keep board interference at bay.
This is crucial. If Celtic agrees to that change then they obviously have no problem with that plan, and all the indications are that a lesson has been learned there even if nowhere else.
The moment for this announcement has to be coming soon; I would imagine, now, that Celtic is planning a press conference that will be a game-changer, announcing several appointments at the same time and trying to hit the ground running.
That he is being given a lot of latitude means only good things … initially, it means good things.
What you need to hope is that this represents an honest-to-God culture shift within Celtic and not a reaction from a board just giving the man they wanted whatever he wants.
In other words, if this was simple appeasement of Howe that would not nearly be as critical to our future as if this is actually a realisation inside the club that the way we’ve traditionally done things has to change.
It will change, now, because of Howe and because of the freedom he appears to have been given to put his people in place … but I’d like to think that we’ll never again go back to a time where someone not part of the football department can interfere in it.
That, as much as the names on the door, is important.
Giving Howe a free hand and building the entire football operation around him, is an excellent way to go, and we need to hope it’s only the start.